So I thought long and hard about what I was going to write on the blog today. And today you're getting an insight into some things I have been struggling with recently.
This past weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada, and truthfully, as a Thanksgiving weekend, it was one of the most miserable and lonely ones I've ever experienced. As a three day long weekend with no holiday expectations it was really good but you'll get to hear about that tomorrow. And possibly Thursday, as well.
However, I want to be honest and so I'm writing this post as a prelude to the next two.
I don't live near my parents and I feel like Dave and I have worked hard to build connections with other people in lieu of that. Yes, Dave's family lives nearby but they don't celebrate Christmas and Easter, and because Dave's mom grew up in the States, they don't mark Canadian Thanksgiving either. So in the past we've found other people to celebrate with -- either friends or relatives from my side of the family.
However this year, for whatever reason, no one wanted to celebrate with us so we spent a very lonely weekend, just our little family of four. The kids noticed the absence of getting together with people, which perhaps broke my heart most of all. "Why aren't we seeing this person or that person?" they asked.
If I ignored the fact that it was Thanksgiving I did fine, but when I remembered that it was a time to gather with family and friends and be thankful, honestly, I was quite miserable and frustrated.
Dave and I are struggling this fall and one of the things we are struggling with is that we feel really alone. We don't really know how to tell our friends and family what we need and we feel like they aren't asking. A few of the things that we've really counted on in the past have not been happening for one reason or another, which just leads to us feeling less supported. It's been a frustrating, lonely fall.
So there you are. Tomorrow I'll be writing about our weekend of fun, baking, and hanging out. It will seem like we had an awesome weekend. And, in some ways, it was. In other ways though, it was a hard slog and you need to know that the pictures don't tell the whole story.
In the spirit of honesty, I felt like I needed to write this post. In the spirit of something I can't really articulate, I am turning comments off on this post (if I can figure out how). Use the time you would have taken to comment to reach out to those in your own circles who might be struggling with their own hard right now.
